Brown wins Top Fuel race to complete historic double

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, March 29, 2008

Antron Brown become the first driver in NHRA history to win races in Pro Stock Motorcycle and Top Fuel, beating Larry Dixon in the Top Fuel final Sunday in the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals.

Brown, who also joined J.R. Todd as the only black Top Fuel winners, followed Del Worsham (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) into the winner's circle at the fourth of 24 races in the series

Brown, a 16-time winner in Pro Stock Motorcycle before making the jump to the 7,000-horsepower Top Fuel class this year, sped past Dixon in a terrific final, finishing in 4.605 second at 320.28 mph to Dixon's 4.621 at 309.06.

"We've been plagued by the second round all season the second round's been biting us, but today we bit back," Brown said.

Worsham beat John Force in the semis and Ashley Force in the final, 4.933 at 316.60 to 4.971 at 302.62, en route to his 22nd career win, but just his first since Labor Day weekend 2005.

Anderson's win in 6.692 at 207.37 over a tire-shaking Kurt Johnson (13.425 at 64.01) was the 53rd of his career, which moved him one ahead of Joe Amato (52) into solo fifth on the NHRA POWERade Series' wins list.

Smith (7.060 at 187.76), sailed past Matt Guidera (7.140 at 185.03) to claim his first win of the season.